Food addicts often eat beyond the point at which they feel they are full, sometime to the point that they know that it will make them sick. Why do they do this when their body tells them they have had enough? While hunger is the physical feeling that most people associate with eating, for the food addict, hunger is really only a secondary motivation. Thus, for the food addict, there is a difference between the need for nourishment and the psychological cravings to eat.
The warning sign of this is that the food addict eats until they are stuffed, but then continues to eat more.
Another warning sign is sneaking food. Like the alcoholic or drug addict who keeps a secret “stash” of the drug to be prepared for their need for it in the future. Food addicts hide food for several reasons: first, they want to be sure they have enough food on hand to satisfy their needs. Second, they are aware that their overeating my draw attention and make other people conscious of their addictive behavior. Third, while food is ordinarily eaten in the kitchen, food addicts do not confine their eating activities to the kitchen, so they want to have food available elsewhere. However, since food looks out of place in other rooms in the house beyond the kitchen, they hide it so that it does not draw attention to itself—and to the food addict who has hidden it.
Therefore, while hiding food is one warning sign of food addiction, another is where you eat: Do you eat in the car, in bed, while watching television, or in other rooms in the house while doing other things? As indicated, food is ordinarily consumed in the kitchen, regularly eating in other locations may indicate a food addictive problem. Further, eating in a multiplicity of locations also indicates some form of constant eating. Meals usually take place at given intervals during the day, not constantly throughout the day.
Another warning sign is focused on what is done with what is left after eating varying forms of food—packaging and containers. Like the alcoholic who carefully disposes of bottles to evade other people discovering his or her drinking, the food addict is careful in disposing of candy bar wrappings, snack packaging, and other tell-tale evidence that food has been consumed. If you feel it necessary to hide the evidence of your eating from other people, you are demonstrating a symptom of a food addict.
If you see yourself in this general picture of the food addict, don’t despair. Psychological counseling can provide you with coping mechanisms and positive behavioral change: The treatment modalities including cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, crisis intervention therapy often combined with medication treatment and inpatient hospitalization for acute interventions specifically in cases where the patients are not treatment compliant in psychotherapy or lacking family support and are experiencing severe symptoms and/or adverse health issues.
